Farmers in remote areas face many risks, including natural disasters, but have no form of protection against lost income.
Most of these farmers earn a very low income, live in upland areas and rely solely on agriculture for their livelihood, according to the National Economic Research Institute (NERI) of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The institute is cooperating with Oxfam-GB to look into the need for risk protection for small-scale farmers in Laos.
Representatives from the relevant sectors, government agencies and international organisations gathered in Vientiane yesterday to discuss possible policies and measures to protect farmers through a social protection system by improving agricultural production management.
Social protection in Laos is expanding in the public and private sectors but is still limited as far as farmers are concerned, NERI Director General Dr Leeber Libuapao said at the workshop.
Last year, farmers around the country were seriously affected by flooding when tropical storms damaged thousands of hectares of rice and other crops, he said.
Although the government and some private and international organisations have provided assistance for their relief, it does not help them in the long term, said Dr Leeber.
Social protection for small-scale farmers would help growers, especially in remote areas, to have more confidence in growing crops for sale and export.
Remote areas are the most vulnerable, so these areas should be prioritised for social protection intervention.
Farmers having a low income, an income source from agriculture alone and a relatively low level of education are the most vulnerable group, so they should become the first priority group for social protection intervention.
Effective measures to provide security for farmers should include the establishment of funds to p romote agriculture production and to support occupati onal training. This would increase incomes and diversify income sources, while the establishment of crop and livesto ck insurance funds and a minimum agriculture product price would provide a sound guarantee.
“We should improve early warning systems providing information on both climate and market situations, and improve and implement community social security associations,” said NERI official Dr Saykham Voladeth.
Oxfam-GB runs projects in Mekong region countries such as Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, representative Dr Arpaporn Sumrit said.
The objectives are to provide community-based evidence on social protection systems in the context of agriculture in the GMS, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam to help national governments to strengthen existing social protection measures and fill implementation gaps.
The projects also aim to provide an assessment of the potential contribution of social protection systems in addressing vulnerability and poverty in the agriculture sector and provide policy recommendations on new social protection schemes and improvements to existing schemes as a means to mitigate risk and improve livelihoods.
